Trailblazing tactician urges football fraternity to trust female coaches

In 2021, Helen Nkwocha became the first female coach of a top-flight European men's team after taking over the reigns at Faroese club Tvoroyrar Boltfelag, albeit on a temporary basis then.

Boltfelag were already relegation bound when Nkwocha was handed the job, but it was the historic moment that mattered most, another ceiling had been shuttered by a woman in the male-dominated game. The 46-year-old Briton, who has since been confirmed on the job, praised the mindset of her employer Tvoroyrar Boltfelag.

"I think it is an absolutely fantastic testament to the mindset of the people that have employed me," Nkwocha told Sky Sports. "They employed me to work with their young players and if they didn't have that mindset they would be looking for similar [coaches] to what they had before. It made sense, it was just a case of people recognising how open-minded the club is."

It is this mental shift that Beldine Odemba wants to see in the Kenyan football environment, especially the Kenyan Premier League, where no club has ever employed a woman as a head coach. Leading Highway Secondary School to the final of the 2022 Federation of East Africa Secondary Schools Association (FEASSSA) Games, she believes is a clear testament that, given a chance, women coaches can equally excel like their male counterparts.

"There are good women coaches out there, highly qualified, but what they lack is a chance to demonstrate that they can work professionally and deliver. I don't know how Irungu Nduati (Highway Secondary School Chief Principal) did it, but when we talked, he felt something positive about me, he liked that I wanted to build a team and trusted me," the 38-year-old told Mozzart Sport.

The former AFC Leopards U23 coach wants retrogressive beliefs that have long been used to put women down in football to be discarded. Beldine recounts losing an opportunity to work with a club as the team manager on account of how she would dress while traveling with the team.

"One of the coaches remarked that, 'how will she be traveling with the team while wearing shorts,' it was unbelievable because I wear shorts all the time while in the field and it has never been a problem. It is such beliefs that are used to deny us opportunities, and it's time we outgrow them."

Menstruation is another weapon she says has been used against women coaches, "when you lose a match some would say it is because of your menses."

Beldine, who is a CAF B Coaching License holder, says that nobody gave her attention on the road to Arusha for East Africa Games, until the semis of the regional games where they met Dagoretti High School.

"It is at this point that being a woman coach became a talking point, I came under close scrutiny, my abilities were questioned, they wanted me to prove my worth by beating Dagoretti (High School), which I did despite the game being played over two days."

This same scrutiny and attention came in Arusha ahead of their semis duel against defending champions St. Mary's, Kitende of Uganda, but her focus, again carried the day. "I did not care about the history behind our opponents, in football, you're as good as your last game, so I did my homework well, prepared my team and we won," the print journalist said.